TRENDnet ProView Wireless Advanced Pan/Tilt/Zoom Internet Surveillance Camera TV-IP400W by TRENDnet
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Digital camera reviews of TRENDnet ProView Wireless Advanced Pan/Tilt/Zoom Internet Surveillance Camera TV-IP400W
Digital camera Review: Incomplete
Summary: 2 Stars
I ordered this camera because the product description stated that it allowed "users to access the camera anywhere in the world by using a Web browser." In my work, we are doing a lot of video, audio conferencing using packages such as NetMeeting, SharedView, Communicator and son on. I, naively, assumed that a product making such a claim, would be easily set up in a way that allowed me to see what was going on in my living room while I was at work, on the road or on vacation. What follows, is my story.
One clarification: I am not a geek, but I am not technologically dumb either. For example, I have some understanding of DHCP, DNS, IP, firewalls, routers and 802.11 but I'd rather not mess up with them.
I did not encounter too many problems setting up the camera for local use/control. The manual on the disk is a .pdf file in English but I could not say that it was well-written. After about half an hour to one hour of installing the 2 software items and unnecessarily messing with my wireless router, the camera began sending some video to my computer. By the way, the manual seems to be incorrectly stating that you must connect through a wire to your wireless router and gives some very confusing and sometimes misleading advice on how to set up the camera's IP address. In my case, connecting the camera through a wire to my Linksys router PREVENTED the configuration utility to complete. The setup eventually completed but only AFTER I removed the wire.
The pictures sent to the computer are of a poor quality - and I am a bit generous stating this. The maximum resolution is a poor 640x480. There is a noticeable delay, 1+ seconds in transmission, even when the camera is on a local loop. Control is possible but response is slow. The 'zoom' button does not do anything.
One other problem seems to be the way this camera works with DHCP. Even though the camera has a unique MAC address, every time the router's DHCP assigns it a new IP address, the software thinks that it sees a new camera. What this means is that you may end up with an undetermined number of 'cameras' in the software interface running on your computer, all attempting to control the same device and you will have to guess which one is the one that actually can connect to the camera, every time you reset either your camera or your router.
Now... to the "access the camera from anywhere in the world" part. It is VERY DIFFICULT to set it up because the vendor does not provide the software and the IP support needed and expects the end-user to go to 'third parties' for that - which is fine but is not mentioned in the 'product description', on the box or in the manuals that come with the camera. Like someone else who reviewed this device, I had to call the tech support. After some 10-15 minutes of elevator music, someone in India picked up the phone and asked for my phone number, email address, type of camera, date of birth, marital status, favorite food (just kidding). After she was satisfied with my answers she told me that someone was going to call me back later and she hung up. Someone never did. I called again and, to my surprise, the guy in India picked up the phone immediately. I wish I could say that he offered some competent advice, but he didn't. He did suggest that, to make the camera work over the Net, I had to open an account with some independent outfit that allows you to get a DNS name for your device and, therefore, at least in theory, be able to access the camera over the net. It's a cumbersome process and, in my case, it did not work very well. It involves getting and setting up a DNS name for your camera, punching holes into your firewall, regularly running some utility on your computer and updating your information on that site... too complicated and, in the end, not worth the effort.
To be fair, I believe that this camera COULD be set up to be accessed and controlled over the Internet IF you could afford a dedicated, permanent IP address to it and you properly set up your router and firewall.
The product gets 2 stars because someone COULD make it work. It's not a defective product. It's just very hard to make it do what it claims that it can do and the vendor's tech support or the provided documentation are not helping.
I can see how a good market for this product would be those technical schools where the students learn how to set up and troubleshoot these things.
I titled my review 'Incomplete' because of the several things missing in this package: a usable manual, competent technical support and support for a DNS name so that the camera can be accessed from the Web when a dedicated IP is not a practical option.
Digital camera Review: Never got it and no reply from vender.
Summary: 1 Stars
I have never recieved the item and after several emails to the company, no one has bothered to reply to my emails, I think it is a bogus company and Amazon is fronting for them, Amazon has not helped me either. I have no trust in either. I am in the process of legal action and or criminal actions against both.
My review across the board
Digital camera Review: Not what I thought.....Still an average wireless camera
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this camera for the pan/tilt feature, but I found out that it does not work with well with Vista. I also thought the video would be as good as the TV-IP110W fixed wireless camera, but it is not. I am an IT guy and I have used several cameras and this is one of the worst I have ever used. I do wish Trendnet would get their act together and make a pan/tilt wireless with a high quality video sensor. Their other products are much better than this one. Buyer BEWARE....Digital camera Review: OK product, horrible service
Summary: 2 Stars
The product works fine and links into my home wireless network fine. However, I had trouble setting up remote internet use so I called the helpline, waited 15 minutes then someone said that they were very busy and I should leave my number for a call back. I got a call back the next day while I was at work. So I called again and it was the same process over again. When i finally spoke to someone, i received a lot of demeaning tech mumbo jumbo. I am still not set up fo remote use and have been unable to reach a service agent a second time. If you are good with tech stuff, it's maybe a good buy, but if you need support, fuggedaboutit!!Digital camera Review: Ok for the price
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this camera after having owned the TV-IP110W (an excellent camera for the price, also reviewed by me elsewhere.) I went into it expecting it to be a pan/tilt version of the same unit. I discovered after the fact, which I would have learned had I read other reviews before buying it, that despite having a higher model number, it is actually an older camera with older technology. I learned this by calling tech support to determine why the picture on this one looked like I was viewing it through a sandstorm while my TV-IP110W was clear in 1/2 the light. Sooo... on to the summary:
Pros:
* Easy to setup and install. No issues getting it setup.
* Reliable. Some people have reported having to reboot it every few weeks, but I really have only had it crash once in over a year. Maybe I'm just lucky.
* Easy to use interface, though not mobile friendly (See below.)
Cons:
* As mentioned, quality is fairly poor, even for a camera of this price range. Picture is usable with daylight streaming in from a glass slider on one side of the room and bay window on the other side AND numerous overhead bulbs, but I wouldn't say much more than usable. The TV-IP110W is much clearer with 1 small window and a single low powered CF bulb.
* A little sluggish on the movement, but not bad
* Interface is not very mobile friendly, but there are work-arounds available if you are html-handy and ambitious.
See: [...] for a detail of the protocol used to control the interface via standard put/get commands. Not as clean as the ActiveX control, but it works.
Overall, its a decent camera that gets the job done, but don't expect to be overwhelmed.